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Army charges soldier with murder of sergeant from Indiana

FORT LEONARD WOOD, Mo. (WISH) — A 21-year-old man has been charged in the murder of a Ligonier, Indiana, sergeant at Fort Leonard Wood, the U.S. Army said Thursday on social media.

Spc. Wooster Rancy, 21, with the 5th Engineer Battalion faces charges from the Army Office of Special Trial Counsel in the the death of Sgt. Sarah Roque, 23.

The Army says Rancy, who is from North Miami, Florida, is a combat engineer with the 509th Clearance Company, 5th Engineer Battalion. He joined the Army in 2022 and attended Basic Combat Training at Fort Leonard Wood.

Rancy is charged via the Uniform Code of Military Justice with unlawfully killing a person, and obstruction of justice.

Roque’s body was found Tuesday inside a trash bin. Fort Leonard Wood, in south-central Missouri, had reported her to be missing a day earlier.

Roque was the handler of an Army mine dog named Zorro, and a member of the 5th Engineer Battalion. She enlisted in 2020. Her obituary says she was born in Lubbock, Texas. She is survived by her parents, three brothers, and a grandmother.

Roque’s body was flown Wednesday to Indianapolis Metropolitan Airport in Fishers and escorted by passenger vehicles along I-69 to Ligonier in Noble County. The northern Indiana city of 4,600 people is halfway between South Bend and Fort Wayne.

An all-night visitation was scheduled for Roque from 2 p.m. Friday to 9:30 a.m. Saturday at Yeager Funeral Home in Ligonier.

A Mass of Christian Burial was scheduled for 11 a.m. Saturday at St. Patrick’s Catholic Church in Ligonier. Burial with full military rites will be in Oak Park Cemetery in Ligonier.

Maj. Gen. Christopher Beck, commanding general at Fort Leonard Wood, said in an earlier statement that Roque’s death “has caused a tremendous void” at the Army base.